How do you create a character and stop sounding so rehearsed in a monologue?
A monologue is a key part of any actor’s resume. It is essential to demonstrate an actor range by illustrating what they can do in a monologue.
But, how do you create a character in a monologue and not sound rehearsed? Here are three things you can do to improve your monologue.
1. Watch someone else and Understand Where your Monologue Came From
Essentially, there is not much that can be done if you do not know much about where you got your monologue from and if you don’t have any specific examples of other people performing a monologue. Any/all of those would make it easier to give you actual, tangible advice you could directly apply.There’s not much to be done when we can’t see you performing it, don’t know the source material, and you don’t have any specific examples of where you’re stuck.
2. Complete a Character Breakdown!
Have you done a character breakdown? It is always best to put your character analysis on paper, and write specific answers to questions such as: Why are you angry? Why are you yelling? Why are you crying? Do you always cry? What are you doing over the course of the monologue? What are you trying to communicate to your audience?
3. Break your Monologue into Beats
If you ever watch an Al Pacino monologue you will notice that he breaks his acting into beats. Taking certain words and phrases apart and inflecting a certain tone, and emotion for each phrase or word in your script. Actors will often times disagree on ways to portray being angry or sad, but a common technique is to understand your character and putting all the different tones together to create the emotion you are trying to convey.
